Foes To Take Truck Dispute Before Board

Tractor-trailer drivers who want to store their cabs at home in garages will square off against angry homeowners Monday before the Orange County Commission.

Members of the Orange County Homeowners Association requested the public hearing, scheduled for 3 p.m., to ask for changes in a parking ordinance adopted in January 1985 that permits residents to build tall garages for truck cabs in neighborhoods.

Truckers, including independent drivers, tow truck operators and other owners of dual rear-wheel vehicles, are fighting the homeowners' efforts, saying the garages provide the only alternative to expensive, unsecured public storage.

Dual rear-wheel vehicles were banned from residential areas in 1981. However, an exception in the law allows the vehicles to be parked in residential areas when they are stored in garages.

The commission will decide whether to make changes in the exception, such as setting tougher restrictions on the size of the garages, or, to delete the 13-word exception from the ordinace, banning the vehicles from residential neighborhoods.

Both groups have mounted campaigns that have included petition drives and lobbying individual commissioners.

Messages urging truck drivers to write their commissioners and attend the hearing have been broadcast on the citizens band radio and notices have been posted in the offices of local trucking companies.

The homeowners placed coupon advertisements in the newspapers urging residents to mail the ads to their commissioners if they wanted to keep dual rear-wheel vehicles out of their neighborhoods. About 200 coupons had been received by commissioners Thursday.

The truck drivers say that if the homeowners persuade the commission to remove the exception many of them will be forced to store their trucks, some of which are valued at more than $70,000, in places where they will be vandalized and burglarized.

''The main reason an individual brings his truck home is for security,'' said William Murtaugh, a company driver for Ball Transportation in Taft.

Murtaugh said public storage facilities are often too expensive for drivers who don't own their trucks and must bring their cabs home because there is not enough space for them at their terminals. He said some drivers make $55 per day.

''People have the misconception that truck drivers make a lot of money, but they don't,'' he said. ''And, if you don't own your truck you don't get any tax advantages,'' for the cost of storage.

He said the commission would be discriminating against truckers if they banned the vehicles from residential neighborhoods because other motorists are allowed to bring home company cars.

''If we're going to crack down on people with tractor-trailers then we should crack down on people with insurance emblems or Lays potato chip stickers on their cars,'' he said.

But Cheryl Moore, president of the Camellia Gardens Homeowners Association and a member of the Orange County Homeowners Association, said many residents are concerned that the truck drivers who bring their vehicles home are illegally running businesses from residential areas.

''It's not who's right, who's wrong or who's telling who how to live. It's a legal issue,'' Moore said. ''It's commercial intrusion of a residential neighborhood.''

Moore said the homeowners plan to present the commission with home appraisals to show that property values decrease after garages for tractor- trailer cabs are built in neighborhoods. She and others think the garages are eyesores.

Commissioner Bob Harrell said he would consider making changes to the law as long as those changes don't penalize the truckers.

''I'm adamantly opposed to making it so they can't park in residential areas at all, he said. ''I think what we have now does a good job, but there are a few minor problems.''

Commissioner Vera Carter, who had suggested imposing height restrictions on the garages instead of repealing the exception entirely, said she would support removal of that clause if it can be proven that secure storage facilities are available for the truck cabs.

''One reason we considered letting them have the garages was because of the lack of safe areas to park tractor cabs,'' when the zoning ordinance was proposed, she said.

But Commissioner Lou Treadway said he would be in favor of banning the cabs from parking in residential areas because the trucks could be considered commercial equipment.

''There should be major surgery on the ordinance and just say tractor- trailers aren't allowed in residential neighborhoods because of their commercial use,'' Treadway said.